Use of AI in Mental Health Care: Community and Mental Health Professionals Survey
Open accessAbstract
Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly recognized as a potential solution to address mental health service challenges by automating tasks and providing new forms of support. Objective: This study is the first in a series which aims to estimate the current rates of AI technology use as well as perceived benefits, harms, and risks experienced by community members (CMs) and mental health professionals (MHPs). Methods: This study involved 2 web-based surveys conducted in Australia. The surveys collected data on demographics, technology comfort, attitudes toward AI, specific AI use cases, and experiences of benefits and harms from AI use. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and thematic analysis of open-ended responses were conducted. Results: The final sample consisted of 107 CMs and 86 MHPs. General attitudes toward AI varied, with CMs reporting neutral and MHPs reporting more positive attitudes. Regarding AI usage, 28% (30/108) of CMs used AI, primarily for quick support (18/30, 60%) and as a personal therapist (14/30, 47%). Among MHPs, 43% (37/86) used AI; mostly for research (24/37, 65%) and report writing (20/37, 54%). While the majority found AI to be generally beneficial (23/30, 77% of CMs and 34/37, 92% of MHPs), specific harms and concerns were experienced by 47% (14/30) of CMs and 51% (19/37) of MHPs. There was an equal mix of positive and negative sentiment toward the future of AI in mental health care in open feedback. Conclusions: Commercial AI tools are increasingly being used by CMs and MHPs. Respondents believe AI will offer future advantages for mental health care in terms of accessibility, cost reduction, personalization, and work efficiency. However, they were equally concerned about reducing human connection, ethics, privacy and regulation, medical errors, potential for misuse, and data security. Despite the immense potential, integration into mental health systems must be approached with caution, addressing legal and ethical concerns while developing safeguards to mitigate potential harms. Future surveys are planned to track use and acceptability of AI and associated issues over time.
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The mental health support potential of LLM-CBs has been noted by both patients and practitioners.
“The mental health support potential of LLM-CBs has been noted by both patients149,152,153 and practitioners153–155”
From A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots (2026) · cites this paper as [153]
The Results (Use of AI; AI Use Cases) report that community members used AI, most commonly ChatGPT, for emotional support or as a conversational personal therapist. Mental health professionals endorsed some AI uses for client support, but the paper does not establish that they specifically noted the mental health support potential of LLM-based chatbots; their reported use was mainly for research and administration. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Does the Digital Therapeutic Alliance Exist? Integrative Review
Malouin-Lachance, A., Capolupo, J., Laplante, C., & Hudon, A. (2025) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/69294 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots
Diel, A., Torous, J., Cuijpers, P., Kleesiek, J., Nensa, F., Weber, N., Faust, F., Lalgi, T. J., Mellis, F. S., Teufel, M., et al. (2026) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-026-03054-x · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“The mental health support potential of LLM-CBs has been noted by both patients 149,152,153 and practitioners 153 – 155 , and it is expected that the role of LLM-CBs in mental health care will continue to grow 156 .”
- Authors
- Cross, S., Bell, I., Nicholas, J., Valentine, L., Mangelsdorf, S., Baker, S., Titov, N., & Alvarez-Jimenez, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Orygen (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Cross, Shane
- ORCID
- Venue
- JMIR Mental Health
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2024-10-11
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- e60589-e60589
- ISSN
- 2368-7959 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11488652
- OpenAlex
- W4403330054
- Cited by
- 113
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 67 · 2025: 46
- FWCI
- 10.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JMIR Mental Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence, mental health services, community members, mental health professionals, attitudes toward AI, AI use cases, perceived benefits and harms, privacy and data security, AI ethics, technology acceptance, access to mental health care
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Artificial Intelligence, Attitude of Health Personnel, Australia, Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Male, Mental Health Services, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Young Adult
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